


A Timeline Reconstructed; James Barnes, Stephanie Barnes and Lady Luck

by StrawberryLane



Series: A Timeline Reconstructed: Lady Luck and Mister Barnes [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Academia, Books, F/M, Female Steve Rogers, Social Media, Tumblr, World War II, wikipedia - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-30
Updated: 2016-10-30
Packaged: 2018-08-27 22:02:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 3,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8418760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrawberryLane/pseuds/StrawberryLane
Summary: One thing we do know about James Barnes is that he was married. Records show that he obtained a marriage license to a Stephanie Rogers in 1936, lived in Brooklyn his whole life and had three younger sisters. Not a lot is known about his wife, except that she was a frail woman, plagued by diseases, for example pneumonia, more often than not. There were letters from her left among his belongings after his death in 1944, sent during the previous year, during Barnes' first few months in the army. Around the time he met Lady Luck the letters had stopped coming.





	1. Wikipedia

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is a thing I started working on because it seemed like fun, because I love fanfics based around social media/news media/academia. But now I have no clue what do with it, so I'm just posting it on here in it's current format, even though it's not as much of a story as a bunch of separate chapters, all centered around the same thing. 
> 
> Please excuse the poor photo-editing that is the wikipedia article, I don't know how to edit photos.
> 
> Edit: I've been informed by an anon that this fanfic is similar to rageprufrock's "Reconstruction", which is a fic I have not (yet) read properly. I have now skimmed it (after being informed about it), and it does seem rageprufrock had this idea first. Please know that this was not an attempt to steal another person's ideas, because I genuinely didn't know it existed. All the kudos to rageprufrock! (and you should all go read "Reconstruction" because it looks great and much more well put together than this).  
> ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

* * *

 


	2. Tumblr

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, apologizes for the bad photo-editing.  
> 

 

* * *


	3. Tumblr Continued

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Photo credits to google images :)

* * *

 

jkonyou:

This man was so pretty I might faint. Just look at the scruff!!

Look at him

Most handsome boy in whole of Brooklyn

Look at his face

Look at that gorgeousness! And that pretty nurse too!

Do you think he might have sent this one to his wife to show her how handsome he looked during battle?

And here's a picture of Lady Luck, just because she's like, major Pretty, too. Those two together, wtf. Like, leave some of the attractiveness to the rest of us, huh?


	4. School assignment

**3/15/11**

**Linda Wilson**

**History A: World War II**

**Teacher: Miss Johnson**

**Lady Luck and her Howling Commandos**

 

Lady Luck is, perhaps, one of the biggest myths in the history of American myths. There are a couple of show reels, two or three good pictures from her actual war days and zero letters and no actual name. When asked, the USO showgirls that accompanied her during the months she traveled the U.S selling warbonds to support the army, all talked about how kind Lady Luck was, and how she really did embody the American dream. Except, you know, there are no records of her having a husband and 2.5 kids. There are, in fact, no records at all.

As an actual person America’s good luck charm may as well not have existed. All we know is how she turned up on the front one day, single-handedly rescued the majority of the 107th, and other soldiers also captured by Hydra and somehow got Colonel Phillips to appoint her the leader of the new, and very successful, special force unit, The Howling Commandos, composed of allied soldiers, all of whom she had rescued from the prison camp. We also know that she somehow became involved with James Barnes and, at his death, nosedived her plane into the freezing ocean.

Something we do know more about are the other Commandos:

Timothy” Dum Dum” Dugan, was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He had a family, a wife, Lucy, and three children, two sons and a daughter. After the war he and the other Commandos continued to work with Margaret “Peggy” Carter and Howard Stark, hunting down Nazis and what was left of Hydra. He died peacefully in 2010, leaving behind his wife, children and several grandchildren.

Gabe Jones was born in Washington D.C, and went to Howard University, where he studied both German and French, which became useful during the war. He, together with Montgomery Falsworth, wrote a book called “Life as we know it; Our journey with Lady Luck,” (1959) in which, frustratingly enough, Lady Luck is never referred to by name. He married Susanne G. Everett, one of the USO showgirls, after the war ended. They still live in Washington D.C, where Jones’ is a professor in French at Howard University.

Montgomery Falsworth was born in Britain and was an expert when it came to explosives. After the war he continued to work with the Howling Commandos for a couple of years before settling down in Las Vegas, Nevada, before moving back to the United Kingdom for his last couple of years. He wrote “Life as we know it; Our journey with Lady Luck,” together with Gabe Jones and left behind three daughters, all by different mothers, and two grandchildren by the time of his death.

Jim Morita was a Japanese-American soldier. He, just like Falsworth, liked explosives, and worked in the field for several years after the war, collaborating with Howard Stark. According to letters he sent from and received at the front lines, Morita was married to Aika, and had a son, Lee. Not much else is known about him.

Jacques Dernier was a French soldier, who, after the war ended, returned to his native Lyon. Not much is known about his life after that. He was interviewed, along with the other commandos for Jones’ and Falsworth’s book (1959), and they all accepted and agreed to be interviewed for more than a couple of documentaries and movies about the World War II and Lady Luck’s fate.

James “Bucky” Barnes was born in New York City, New York, to George and Winnifred Barnes. He left school at fifteen to find work and was drafted into the army, along with many others, in 1943. He was a sniper in the army and was among those who got rescued by Lady Luck, along with the other Howling Commandos, from the Hydra factory. According to legend, and supported by hearsay, letters, and show reels, he became romantically involved with Lady Luck shortly after they met. Barnes died in 1944, before the war ended, falling from a speeding train. He, and Lady Luck, were the only Howling Commandos to give their lives during the war.

 

 

 

Lady Luck

The Howling Commandos

 


	5. Books and a review

“James,” she whispers. Looking into her eyes feels right, in a way Stephanie never did. Stephanie, who he thought he loved. Who he, until five hours and 13 minutes ago, has always been completely faithful to, despite having ample opportunity to explore the field even back home in Brooklyn. But Stephanie isn’t here. He hasn’t seen Stephanie in months, has a hard time even recalling the colour of her eyes, even though he spent a day staring into them before leaving. He should feel bad for doing this, but he’s only a man. A lesser man would’ve caved weeks ago and he didn’t. He deserves this. Deserves Lucky’s love and warmth and nearness. That’s all it is, a way to keep warm in the cold Alps. Stephanie will understand, she loves him. She wouldn’t want him to suffer.

[Amanda Sawyer, Dreaming of You. New York: Egmont Ritcher, 2003. Print].

* * *

 

“She was never faithful to me!. We married young, because of a kid that never came. We were never in love, not really. You have to believe me!”

“You never told me you’re married! How could you not tell me?! Did you think I wouldn’t find out? Did you think that I’m just a dumb bitch who wouldn’t care?! How do you think this will go over if it comes out? Lady Luck takes married lover, the media’s going to have a field day.”

“Nobody will care! I’m just some soldier getting it on with some dame! Loads of people are doing much worse than that! This is a war!”

“Just some dame?! You said you love me!”

“I do! Stephanie isn’t important. I don’t care about her, I only care about you.”

“You know what James? I don’t believe you. You’re unfaithful to your wife without a second thought, how can I believe you when you say you really love me?”

“Doll...”

“Don’t ‘doll’ me. It’s over.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that. Now leave. I don’t want to see you no more.”

[Holly Wright, Just My Lady Luck, 2009. Grasser. Print].

**Just My Lady Luck: Book Review.**

Hi there! I know it’s been awhile, and I have no other excuses than “I’ve been incredibly busy!” Promise! School is kicking my ass and it’s barley October. So don’t expect much new content on here for the next couple of months. What I have been able to do since, oh god, July, it’s really been a long time, is check out and read Just My Lady Luck, by Holly Wright.

It’s about (who else?) Lady Luck, the lady who was America’s good luck charm during the WWII. The plot is simple: Lady Luck, working as a waitress in a bar in New York, sees an ad in the paper that seeks singing and dancing girls to set up a show that will tour the country to sell warbonds to support the boys out fighting for their, and America’s, lives, at the fronts. Lady Luck, here going by Sandy, answers the ad and promptly gets a job as a USO Showgirl. A few pages later she travels to France, meets her main man, Bucky Barnes, in a bar, where he and the rest of the 107th are drowning their sorrows after being taken prisoners and then released again by Hydra. They meet, they fall in love and even ( **SPOILERS!** ) sleep together before Sandy finds out her man isn’t as single as he says he is. In truth, he’s married and has a wife back home in New York. Cue the major angst. Will she do the right thing and dump him, standing by Stephanie Barnes, or will she succumb to the charm and hotness that is Bucky Barnes?

If you like Bucky Barnes I wouldn’t recommend reading this book. If you, however, already think he’s sleazy for cheating, go right ahead. He is portrayed as being a serious slimeball.

I liked the book, especially its, (probably) made up characterization of Lady Luck, at least until the end, during which I didn’t agree with her choices, but whatever. It’s a book and the people who inspired it are long dead. I know I’m probably going to attract some hate for this, but I honestly don’t care all that much for the real Lady Luck either. Sure, she’s pretty and icon of patriotism and fourth of July and all that, but as a person? Nope. I have a hard time buying she wouldn’t have been aware of her boyfriend’s marriage. We know about it now, years later, so why wouldn’t she have known? And if there’s one thing I don’t like it’s people who help other people cheat on their significant others.

 

Until next time, Sylvia.


	6. Of Soldiers and Men and The Other Woman

* * *

 

 

**Review: Of Soldiers and Men**

“Of Soldiers and Men” is a movie that settles in your bones. It’s Brooklyn, New York, in the 1940’s. James “Bucky” Barnes (Sebastian Stan) has just enlisted for the army – There’s a war to be fought. His wife, Stephanie, (Shirley Henderson), is worried. Her young husband, on the other hand, could not be more excited. They spend one last day together, visiting museums and gazing into each others eyes. It’s all very romantic, complete with Stephanie waving with a white handkerchief and crying when Bucky ships out.

Then comes a fast track segment showing Bucky both training for and fighting a war. It’s raw, dirty and so very real. Things go great for the sergeant and then not so good – anyone who knows their history know what I’m talking about.

Enter Lady Luck (here played by Margot Robbie). She is, while you wouldn’t believe it from the title, the star of the movie. Everyone, including Bucky, is instantly starstruck and falls in love with this beacon of hope that shows up out of nowhere. To tell you much more of the plot would be to spoil it silly, but do know that inside of these 118 minutes there’s room for not only surprises and agonizing moments of fear, but also for some really great and somewhat tricky love scenes. There’s a reason this movie is rated R and it’s not because of the violence.

Sebastian Stan (Gossip Girl, Kings), is excellent as the young Bucky Barnes, embodying the role in a way no previous actor has managed. In fact, I refuse to believe Sebastian Stan is there on the screen, I am sure it is James Buchanan Barnes who proclaims his undying love for Lady Luck in the middle of a muddy field somewhere in France.

Margot Robbie plays her Lady Luck as a sarcastic young lady, full of mischief and pranks, but not above punching misogynistic soldiers in the face. Robbie, who spent all day everyday for three months inside a gym for the role, looks the part. Strong and independent, she shows all the young girls that while it can be nice to have a man around, you don’t necessarily need one to have a great life.

Scottish actress Shirley Henderson does a greatjob of portraying Bucky’s dejected and illness ridden wife, Stephanie, considering we know so little of the real Stephanie Barnes. Her casting was somewhat unexpected, as all the other Hollywood movies and television series have cast an actress considerably younger than her male co-star for the role of Stephanie Barnes, as Hollywood is prone to do. But casting Henderson turned out to be the right choice. We have, after all, no idea when the real Stephanie Barnes was actually born.

— Karen Smith, GeekMovies.Com.

* * *

 

**Review: The Other Woman**

Taissa Farmiga (American Horror Story, The Bling Ring), plays a young Stephanie Rogers. Taylor Kitsch (Friday Night Lights, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) plays her husband, Bucky Barnes, in a way we’ve never seen him before. The Other Woman puts a new spin on the story we’ve heard and seen a hundred times before (latest in Of Soldiers and Men, from 2011), the one about World War II’s best sniper meeting, and later having an affair with, Lady Luck. But this movie tells Barnes’ wife, Stephanie’s, point of view of her husband’s infidelity, something that’s never really been done in Hollywood before. The focus is usually on Barnes' story with Lady Luck.

Opening in the spring of 1939, a seventeen year old Stephanie Rogers meets the handsome dockworker Bucky Barnes and falls instantly in love. He’s older, rough around the edges and oh so charming. While Stephanie doesn’t come from a rich family herself, it’s clear that her mother (Emily Watson) doesn’t think Barnes is a good choice for her daughter. There are rumours circulating that he is the father of several of the bastards born in the neighbourhood, always to teenage mothers. Stephanie, of course, doesn’t listen.

Cut to the winter of 1940, and a newly eighteen year old Stephanie, pregnant, marries Bucky Barnes in the saddest ceremony I’ve ever seen in any cinema piece ever. Stephanie, still with blinds over her eyes, preventing her from seeing who the man she’s marrying actually is, is happy. Bucky, all too used to his bachelorhood, is cursing every twist of fate that put him in this situation – he has to actually marry the girl he got pregnant.

Needless to say, the marriage doesn’t turn out to be a happy one.

A few years later, a war is happening in Europe and Barnes signs up for the army where he meets Lady Luck (Alona Tal). But the focus is still on Stephanie, who, already used to Bucky’s drinking and gambling, struggles with the realization that her husband is unfaithful. With America’s number one sweetheart, no less.

In an Oscar worthy scene, which is a feat in itself for a scene that contains no actual dialogue, Stephanie confronts her husband about his cheating. Rachel Platten’s “Congratulations” plays on full volume over the scene in a way that shouldn’t work but does anyway, while Stephanie seemingly curses out Bucky, who, already drunk out of his mind, feels threatened by his wife suddenly standing up for herself and takes to brandishing his army rifle around. The scene ends with a bang, and not the fun kind either.

The Other Woman is not the movie you should watch if you’re wanting giggles and romantic love stories, but it is a refreshing take on a real life story we don’t actually know that much about.

— Sophia Richmond, Smittenmitten.Com


	7. Academia

Not much is known about James Buchanan Barnes, commonly known as Bucky. He was a sniper during the second world war, active in the Howling Commandos, Lady Luck’s special unit force. We know he was among the soldiers taken prisoners by Nazi Germany’s special science division, Hydra. We know he was, among the rest of the surviving soldiers, rescued by Lady Luck. Interestingly enough, we don’t really know why Lady Luck choose to break the rules and go to rescue the majority of the 107th infantry either. History buffs, scientists and authors all have their own theories about why Lady Luck embarked on daring suicide mission to the facility where her fellow countrymen and allies were being held prisoners, each one more outlandish than the next.

[...]

One thing we do know about James Barnes is that he was married. Records show that he obtained a marriage license to a Stephanie Rogers in 1936, lived in Brooklyn his whole life and had three younger sisters. Not a lot is known about his wife, except that she was a frail woman, plagued by diseases, for example pneumonia, more often than not. There were letters from her left among his belongings after his death in 1944, sent during the previous year, during Bucky’s first few months in the army. Around the time he met Lady Luck the letters had stopped coming.

[...]

By the latter half of 1943, there are no letters sent to or from Stephanie Barnes to be found. The last trace of her existence is a letter sent by Barnes himself, dated June 28, wishing her “The happiest of birthdays, darling. I know it’s a bit early, but considering you probably won’t get this until December I figured I better say it now. Just know I’m thinking about you.”

Knowing what little we know about Stephanie Barnes it’s entirely possible she succumbed to one of her many illnesses whilst her husband was overseas and he, in grief, turned to Lady Luck for support.

[Kathryn B. Wilkinson, James Barnes; America’s Sniper. Chicago: Morrow and Harper, 1996. Print].

* * *

 

We know Barnes corresponded with his wife during the first months of his deployment, sending letters as often as he could. We also know that he received almost as many back. There was a big package of letters among the things the other Howling Commandos salvaged from Barnes’ tent after his death. Those letters were saved by his family and, in 2013, they were donated by his sister, Rebecca Barnes Proctor, to the Smithsonian as part of the now permanent Lady Luck and her Howling Commandos exhibit.

Bucky and Stephanie Barnes sent many letters to one another, filled with loving affection. It’s the kind of writing that makes you feel like you’re reading something forbidden, without being explicit at all. The letters scream of privacy, of private conversation between two people who have eyes for no other, which is also why the Smithsonian decided to keep most of them under lock and key, only exposing a few.

The letters are also a point of mystery for us history buffs out there. The last letter in the pile, dated October 4, before Barnes’ imprisonment, is from Barnes’ mother, stating that she hasn’t seen Stephanie for months, but that Barnes shouldn’t be worried, she’s sure everything is fine.

The last letter we know Mrs Barnes received from her husband is dated June 28, over three months before the letter from Barnes’ mother arrived. The last letter he received from Stephanie is dated June 2. She speaks of ordinary things, how lonely she feels without her husband and how she’s had to quit working at hospital she was volunteering at, because of her poor immune system. After June 28, there’s radio silence between them, as far as the world knows today.

By July 1943, the post system at the front was so bad that by the time the soldiers got their letters, a month or more could have passed, easily. This means that while Stephanie’s letter is dated June 2, Barnes may not have actually received it until well into July or perhaps even August. It was the same for letters the soldiers sent back home, meaning Stephanie may not have gotten her husband’s June 28 letter until August or even later.

By October, it was even worse. Ma Barnes letter to her son, dated October 4, may not have reached her son, who, by that time, had moved further into Italy, until November or December. We do not know what Barnes sent in reply to his mother’s letter, nor is there any evidence that the man showed any signs of worry about not receiving another letter from his wife, but that may well be because he knew the post system needed time.

At the end of October or beginning of November 1943, the 107th went up against Hydra forces and lost, with the part of the regiment that didn’t die on the battlefield being taken prisoners, Barnes being one of them. A couple of weeks later The USO Showgirls and their show arrived at the camp, supposedly to ignite new courage in the remaining soldiers. To this day we do not know what exactly prompted one of these girls, better known as Lady Luck, to steal an airplane together with Scientist and Inventor Howard Stark and SHIELD founder, Peggy Carter, and go on a one woman mission into enemy territory to save all of the imprisoned men. It was during this mission that Lady Luck first met James Barnes.

Sometime after returning to camp, now as a free man once again, Barnes began a relationship with Lady Luck, seemingly not caring at all about the wife he left behind back home in New York.

Meanwhile, Stephanie Barnes is nowhere to be found, neither then, nor now. It has been argued she may have died from one of her many illnesses and that her husband somehow got wind of this on the front and already knew she was gone by the time he met Lady Luck. Perhaps he did. Perhaps he understood Stephanie had passed long before anyone else did, just because he wasn’t receiving any new letters from her. There is, after all, no record of him sending any letters to his wife back in Brooklyn after June 28, 1943, four months before he even laid eyes on Lady Luck.

[Isabella Forrest. Where did Stephanie Barnes go? A Timeline Reconstructed, 2010. Print.].

* * *

 

Lady Luck, best described as America’s best known mascot and good luck charm during the second world war, appeared out of nowhere. No one knows, despite numerous attempts to find out, nothing more about the woman than that she worked as one of the main characters in USO’s showgirl troupe during a few months in 1943, trying to generate support for the American troops and, seemingly out of nowhere, decided to infiltrate enemy territory to save a bunch of allied soldiers in early November 1943. No records show why she decided to take the huge risk the rescue mission involved, but one of the most popular theories during the 1960’s was that she, as a USO girl, had met a soldier whom she fell in love with. This soldier would have been among the soldiers taken prisoners, prompting Lady Luck to don her helmet, grab a stage prop shield and go off on her one woman rescue mission.

Of course, these theories run into trouble when introduced to Sergeant James “Bucky” Barnes, the man who is best known for being Lady Luck’s lover and America’s best sniper (yes, in that order).

James Barnes was among the soldiers freed by Lady Luck that day, but no evidence support the theory that he may have been her mystery man from the beginning. All evidence found (and there’s been preciously little), point the facts in the opposite direction. Lady Luck and Sergeant Barnes did not begin their affair until late 1943. And even if we decide to believe the theories of Lady Luck and Barnes’ meeting well before Azzano, there’s the small problem of Barnes seemingly being very devoted to his wife Stephanie back home in New York. There are interviews with other soldiers from the 107th, recorded after 1945, that paints James Barnes as being the most devoted husband on either side of the Atlantic. According to the interviews done with his fellow soldiers, he spoke about his wife a lot, talked highly of her and showed no interest in any of the girls he encountered whilst abroad. At least not until he met Lady Luck. Meeting her and beginning an affair that is still famous 70 years later, and to still be talking about your wife like she’s your entire world? Something does not add up.

[...]

[Christian C. Bell Chasing Lucky. Kerry and CO, 1978. Print.].

 


End file.
